


It’s Time to Kiss and Make Up

by Jade_Dragoness



Category: The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Genre: Big Monster Cock, Bodyguard versus Assassin, Book 16: Peace Talks, Bottom!Kincaid, Fighting or Fucking is the Question of the Day, First Time, First Time They'd Been on the Same Side, M/M, Needing to Figure Out How to Get Along, No Spoilers for Battle Ground, Not Canon Compliant, POV Jared Kincaid, Rare Pairing, Shapeshifting sex, Spoilers for Peace Talks, The Blame for this Ship Rests on Jim Butcher's Shoulders, They have a history, Top!Grey, Unrealistic Sex, no beta we die like Wardens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:56:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26426743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jade_Dragoness/pseuds/Jade_Dragoness
Summary: Goodman Grey and Jared Kincaid have only ever been on opposites sides, like a lot. Bodyguard vs. Assassin. They've only ever been adversaries.Then Dresden calls them in to fight on the same side against the Formor. And now they need to get along when all they've ever done before was try to kill each other.
Relationships: Goodman Grey/Jared Kincaid, Harry Dresden/Karrin Murphy
Comments: 22
Kudos: 43





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Also be aware I have not read the short story 'Monsters' to my despair. So Grey is based off 'Skin Game' and 'Peace Talks'. SPOILERS FOR PEACE TALKS. Spoilers for the microfiction 'Goodbye'. No spoilers for ‘Battle Ground’ although I have watched that the book trailer like a bajillion times by now. And I strongly suspect my timeline is not anywhere close to what will happen in ‘Battle Ground’ but... *handwaves*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Jim Butcher wrote in response to a reader question:  
>  _If Grey and Kincaid stared down would a soulgaze happen. Hrm._  
>  _Not without an incredible level of intimacy. Like, a soul-baring moment of honesty, or the intimacy of a romantic realization, something like that._
> 
> Wham! I had a new ship on my hands I was not expecting to want like burning. Then after frantically refreshing the Goodman Grey tag and realizing no one else had written it to feed my sudden craving I gave in and wrote it myself.

When the call came through on one of his business phones, Jared Kincaid wasn’t particularly surprised by who was on the other end. 

“Dresden, how did you get this number?” he asked cautiously.

“How do you think?” Harry Dresden said, sounding tired but amused by Jared’s annoyed growl.

The Archive. Of course it had to be the girl.

Jared closed his eyes. He hadn’t seen her in over two years, two long years which had felt far longer than they should have been. Within him rose the urge to ask: How is she? How much has she grown? Has she finally figured out how to keep her schoolgirl stockings neat and folded? Who reassured her after her nightmares?

Has she missed me? 

He strangled the words before they made it out of his mouth.

“Why the hell are you calling?” Jared asked instead, in his most disinterested tone. “Because if it’s to hire me I’m still under contract and I won’t be finished for another couple of hours.” He glanced over at the principal he was guarding. He was giggling to himself, drugged out of his mind and cuddling two women he’d hired for the evening, against his guard’s advice. He was the rich college-aged son of the CEO of some oil-producing company. Jared hasn’t bothered remembering his name. He’d been hired to keep the man safe until his father’s security team showed up at the hotel to get him off his hands. Jared had only cared that his father’s money transfer had gone through. Yet the time he had bought for Jared to play bodyguard to his son was running out so that team better show up soon or more money better be in his account or Jared was going to leave.

He was hoping to just leave. The young asshole kept trying to touch Jared’s hair and he nearly broken his fingers last time. If he tried again then Jared wouldn’t hold back.

Anyway, he was boring. Jared was far more interested in hearing about what was happening on the ground in Chicago. The news of the Fomor and a freaking Titan, declaring war on Mab and the signatories of the Accords who were at the Chicago at the time (including the girl), had hit the supernatural info-net with all the subtlety of a thermite grenade going off in your face.

The war sounded like the perfect opportunity to make a minor fortune or two. 

Jared had also been curious to learn which side would end up hiring his services when he posted his availability. Considering the stir the Formor had been causing the last few years he had a small bet against himself that they would beat any others to the punch. If it wasn’t for the Archive’s well-known neutrality then he would have laid money on her winning that race.

“Well, you know what, the way I see it you still owe me one.”

“What the _hell_ do you mean, Dresden?” he asked icily. Jared had a sinking feeling he knew where this conversation was going. He narrowed his eyes in irritation. He _paid_ his debts. He didn’t like this implication that he didn’t. That he _hadn’t._

The muscles in his back tensed as his subvocal growl anger caused a low vibration which made the others in the room yelp with fear. Three heads popped high on the bed until they caught sight of Jared’s expression before dipping back down to get out of sight.

Jared ignored them but forced himself to relax.

“I asked you to kill me… and well, I’m still ticking, kicking, and going and going,” Dresden said cheerfully, as if getting shot in the chest was a weekly occurrence which he had learned to shrug off. 

“I can _fix_ that.”

“No, no, no, it’s fine. You tried. You get a gold star for effort.”

Jared snorted, amused despite himself. There weren’t many people on the planet who would be able to joke around with the person who’d unrepentantly put a bullet in their chest and who would do it again for the right price. Jared was impressed all over again by the young wizard’s adamant nerve. Hell, he’d been impressed when he’d seen the man take the heat of a flamethrower and not buckle as it slowly roasted his hand into a black briquette. You couldn’t learn those kind of _cojones_... you had to be born with them.

“Like I said,” Dresden continued. “You still owe me.”

There were ways he could argue it. Point out he had shot Dresden clean and clear. Although… he had let himself be talked out of taking the head-shot. And the favor Dresden asked for, to be taken off the board to keep him free of the collar of the Winter Knight...well, Jared clearly hadn’t done it. He hadn’t succeeded or there wouldn’t be an annoying wizard talking in his ear.

Of course, he’d _tried_ and he’d lost more with that decision than he thought he would. 

But Dresden was right, in a way. His payment on what he owed the wizard had been half-done, incomplete. So Dresden did have something of a marker to call in. 

“There’s a lot of people in that city who won’t be happy to see me,” Jared pointed out. The Archive. Karrin Murphy. Hell, even the Baron whom Dresden grumbled about had been very pointed in his words about him being allowed anywhere near Chicago. That if he showed up again without asking for permission to be in town then Baron John Marcone would take it out of his hide. Mind you, Jared found the threat amusing (for he saw several ways to get around the man’s defenses even with a Valkyrie on guard) but he also didn’t feel like challenging an accorded Freeholding Lord about whom he would allow entry onto his territory. 

Anyway, Chicago was only one city and easy enough to avoid if you didn’t count airport layovers which Jared certainly didn’t.

“I’ll take care of it,” Dresden said firmly. The phone line started cackling with static. “Look just show up as soon as you can. Call me at Murphy’s home line when you get in. Bring everything you think will work to kill an army of Formor.” He hung up.

Jared scowled briefly because he never agreed to show up at all.

Damn it. 

He turned to eye the principal again who had gone back to giggling again, oblivious to everything outside his bed. Only when he was certain there was no one watching did he pull another phone out of his inner jacket pocket. It was more portable although nowhere as secure as his laptop but it did the job when he was in a hurry. He activated the hidden secured partition and started making travel plans for Chicago. He also put in an order for hardware, considering it was Harry Dresden calling him to work and he tripled his usual order of everything. He mentally reviewed what he knew about the various nations which joined together under the banner of the Formor before he added an order for every kind of incendiary weapon his armorers had on hand.

In a couple of hours he had a flight to catch.

*-*-*-*

Jared dropped Dresden a message to let him know he was in the city and he would get in touch in an hour. He’d already picked up his hardware, including a vehicle which doubled as an armored car but looked like a white-paneled delivery van. It took him longer than he had planned to actually arrive within Chicago’s city limits as he’d had to actually drive in because the airports where a mess with the remnants of crashed airplanes. Even the roads weren’t exactly easy to navigate with the number of abandoned dead vehicles. He had tried to hire a private plane but every pilot he’d managed to contact had refused to fly in the city’s skies while citing a wild rumor about active solar flares.

But even with those delays slowing his arrival he needed to carve out at least an hour to close his eyes. He hadn’t had the chance to rest in over ninety-six hours and he could never sleep on a plane, even when he chose a first class seat in a commercial flight. It was just too crowded for him to relax. And while he could and had gone a lot longer before without sleep and come out the other end fighting and wining he also knew that his effectiveness started dropping down if he pushed it too long. He needed to get some shut-eye if he wanted to function at his peak to face an army.

Because of course Harry Dresden would never call for something simple. 

No hotels where accepting bookings, annoyingly enough, so he’d had to find an empty home to break into. He figured the chaos in the streets would let him get away with it for a couple of days. Fortunately, it had been easy enough to find the addresses of several homes that were up for sale and therefore empty of anyone. Empty homes like these were great for covering his tracks too. Easy to wipe down when there was no furniture to get in the way. Or to torch if he was in a hurry to get rid of any evidence of his presence and as a cover from mortal and supernatural forensics.

Dresden had called back at some point during his nap, leaving a message to meet up at Karrin’s house. Jared’s sharp ears caught the little shades of possessiveness in Dresden’s voice as he mention her name.

He’d smirked, well it was about time that Karrin had gotten to tap that, as the kids said these days. She had always been so resistant at the idea whenever he had brought it up. Guess she got over it.

Jared absently wondered if he asked Dresden how he’d feel about a threesome if he’d start laughing so hard he’d fall and break his arm too. 

*-*-*-*

Jared didn’t bother parking and coming up to the door to ring the doorbell as soon as he drove down the street which contained the rosebush-lined little house where Karrin Murphy lived. He drove past it in the van keeping both eyes open for spotters and the shadowed places where someone with a rifle could set up shop to take out the occupants of the house. 

He also focused his vision into the thermal range to check for any hidden figures even as he sniffed the air for any scents which would be out of place in a neighborhood like this. Even experienced magic users who used veils would occasionally forget to take heat signatures or scent-trails into account when hiding themselves away by magic. 

He didn’t see anything, nor did he sense anything which triggered his instinct of being watched. He hated to rely on it. It wasn’t perfect. Powerful beings in the past had slid under his internal warning system before without setting it off but with the time constraint he was under it was better than nothing. 

Chicago had clearly gone through hell, too many things were on fire and the chemical smell of synthetic materials burning away blunted Jared’s nose. Whatever Dresden had planned had to be desperate if they weren’t out there providing help (he would put down money on it being something Karrin would insist upon doing otherwise), which sounded about right for the windmill-tilting wizard.

Jared throttled down the worry which gnawed at the back of his mind as he wondered about the status of the Archive. She was fine. She was the repository of all human knowledge and no longer as young and vulnerable as she used to be. Anything which tried to eat her would find her too big of a mouthful to choke down. 

He ignored the thoughts that maybe she was just the right sized snack for a Titan.

Jared also didn’t pay attention to the cold logical voice within him which pointed out the Archive was only mortal and was just as easily broken. He couldn’t help but think up all the ways _he’d_ go about doing it. He forced himself to stop by reminding himself that whatever he would concoct, doubtlessly the Archive had already considered and created countermeasures.

He parked the van one street over. It was a moment’s work to find the home which shared a back fence with Karrin’s place. Surprisingly, the house was almost completely lacking in a threshold. So he broke in and found it empty like it was going to be sold although it had no ‘For Sale’ sign out front. A quick exploration showed that it wasn’t as empty as he thought as the house had bedrooms displayed like they were meant to be put in a home design magazine. He reasoned it was being staged to be put on the market but the work hadn’t been finished yet which is why the rest of the house was lacking furniture.

Hey, he’d just found his newest command center. So he retreated to the van to pull out his travel duffel and a few other goodies.

Then it was barely any work to jump over the fence and land in Karrin’s backyard. He checked the windows and saw that the living room was filling up with familiar faces of Dresden’s people. Considering the how the entire city’s power grid was still down, everything was being illuminated by candlelight.

He barely stepped up backyard door when he sensed movement behind and above him through a slight flow of air which made the fine hairs on his neck stand up. 

He dropped flat at once, turning on his right side as he brought out his Glock-19 from its shoulder-holster. 

Long, matte black claws only just missed taking his head off. As it was he lost his baseball cap and a couple centimeters of hairs off the end of his ponytail. The blond hairs hovered for a moment and blew apart from the air turbulence when Jared shot his semi-automatic in a burst of three bullets. The figure he aimed for blurred away, making him miss.

A familiar dark-haired man of medium height whose eyes glittered and gleamed with gold dropped down from the roof.

 _Fuck!_

_Grey._

What the _hell_ was Goodman Grey doing here?

Jared didn’t stop moving although he didn’t dare shoot as a 9mm bullet could easily go through the man’s body and end up embedded in one of the others in the house. He doubted Dresden or Karrin would be pleased if he accidentally shot them or their allies. 

Staying low he threw himself at Grey’s legs, flickering out a titanium knife from his belt to cut the skin-walker’s Achilles’ heels. 

He kept his momentum, rolling. Then as fast as he could he threw himself away, not wanting to remain within grabbing reach. He wasn’t quite fast enough to avoid catching a claw scrapping at his boots. Fortunately, the steel under the leather kept him from losing a foot.

It had been nearly two decades since they’d last tangoed but he wasn’t about to forget nearly getting his face ripped off by Grey. After all this time he still had a lingering scar on his chin from his fight with the skinwalker. 

He didn’t have the gear to fight something like Grey. To even survive the next few minutes he needed to get to the van.

Grey stumbled for one step, two steps, and then his gait smoothed out. He came after him even faster than Jared could move. The black claws on his hand grew longer and serrated fangs flashed at his mouth. The pupils of his golden eyes elongated.

But the gambit had worked. They had put enough distance from the house that Jared didn’t hesitate to bring the Glock to bear again. Although he wished he had a machine gun instead. Not that it would put Grey down but at least it would buy him more than a few seconds of lead time to get to those incendiary devices.

“Wait! Don’t kill him!”

Jared froze in place at Dresden’s loud barked out order. To his surprise Grey also stopped moving. 

“Let me guess, Harry,” Jared said flatly, into the resulting silence. “You didn’t tell him I was coming.”

Grey stepped away from Jared who eyed him warily. His predator instincts were warning him loud and clear that another damn big monster was way too close and he should do something violent about it. His trigger finger itched to shoot. He knew rationally that bullets, even the steel-jacketed clip in his jacket, wouldn’t do much more than irritate Grey and ruin the dark-green button down shirt he was wearing. 

Grey’s hands and teeth shifted back to human normal although his eyes were gleaming and metallic when he turned to face Dresden, who Jared noted looked like he’d already been through a meat-grinder. “Then he isn’t here to try to kill you.” His entire body language shifted into a relaxed pose. “I recommend you consider killing him away so he isn’t a threat in the future.”

“You know each other,” Dresden stated, twitching only a little at the sight of Grey’s eyes.

Jared’s chin twinged with memory of faded agony. “We’ve met a time or two.”

“Or three or four or fifteen,” added Grey, turning back to glance at Jared. His eyes were still bright gold with pupils slit like those of a cat.

“What can I say, we have similar lines of work,” said Jared, keeping his gaze locked on Grey in case the other man tried something. Unlikely, if he was answering to Dresden. But you didn’t stay alive by coasting on assumptions. He wanted to hear from Dresden himself that he was paying Grey’s fee.

Slowly, Jared got to his feet. He was too aware of Grey. And knew that for all the other man’s casual stance he had to be just as aware of Jared’s every move. All Jared had to do was make any kind of motion which made Grey uneasy in any way and they’d be back where they started. 

Or worse, with Grey successfully taking off Jared’s head this time. 

Hell, if the other scion was feeling even half of instincts which Jared had battering at him from his lizard-brain then he _wanted_ to take out the inherent threat posed by the mere presence of another supernatural predator.

Dresden was shaking his head in disbelief as he looked from Jared to Grey and back to Jared again. “Should I just assume that everyone in your past wants to kill you, Kincaid?”

Jared remembering the last encounter with the Blackstaff too well and had to smile in wry amusement. Although, really this was on Dresden for keeping important information too close to the chest. If he was better at letting everyone in on the fine details, such as who was going to join them in a fight, then these situations wouldn’t keep happening.

“Only the ones still alive,” Jared answered Dresden, coolly. He slowly put his gun back into its holster, after changing the clip for a fresh one. “I didn’t realize you knew Goodman Grey, Harry.” He quirked an eyebrow in a silent question and got the slightest nod back from Dresden. 

“Yup, we met not too long ago. What can I say, I liked the cut of his jib and had to invite him out for another dance.”

Yeah, the wizard knew exactly what Grey was. Huh, that was something to keep in mind. Most people in the supernatural world who knew about the existence of skinwalkers didn’t go hiring Goodman Grey for a second job. At least not once they’d figured out what the man was keeping buried under his unassuming exterior.

It also spoke to Grey’s character in ways that Jared hadn’t considered before now if Dresden had been the one to call him up again. 

“Keep talking like that and I’ll get jealous,” murmured Karrin from somewhere behind Dresden. She peeked over Dresden’s side and glared briefly at Jared, who shrugged a shoulder in response. 

It was Grey’s fault he had to fire a gun on her property.

Dresden’s grin was a bright flash of pleasure which barely dispersed the tension between Jared and Grey. It did make the wizard look less like roadkill too stubborn to believe it was actually dead. Dresden had clearly taken a beating recently. 

Well, at least he was still going and going.

“No more dawdling, let’s get this war party started,” Dresden said. 

*-*-*-*

Jared didn’t understand why he was even asked to show up. 

His job was pretty simple. As the only sniper of any skill in the entire group his job was to go high and take out as much as the Formor leadership which came across his scope until he ran out of targets or out of bullets, whichever came first. 

Even his additional job of providing eyes-in-the-sky intel to the none-tech-destroying members wasn’t something which needed his physical presence to set up. It wasn’t as if the techies had even brought their electronics with them, not with Dresden in the same building. Since they’d only just got them working again they weren’t going to risk the radios committing suicide to avoid being near a wizard. Although the tech-geeks did give Jared the frequency which they’d be using for their communications.

He suspected Dresden had wanted him there so the others would know what he looked like and that he was being trusted to help during whatever fog-of-war situation came up.

It was annoying as hell. 

Okay, maybe it wasn’t Dresden’s people who were annoying him. 

It was Goodman Grey.

The man sat unobtrusively in a corner and had been more or less ignored after Dresden had introduced him. But he kept turning to watch Jared’s every move. 

It made his teeth itch. 

Jared had to choke back a snarl whenever he felt Grey’s eyes on him. 

He _hated_ it. It wasn’t even rational. He was well aware the man wasn’t currently a threat. Dresden had purchased his services and Jared knew exactly what it meant. Grey’s reputation as a professional in their line of work was as clean as Jared’s own. And in the centuries he had been working under the moniker of the Hellhound (opposed to the name he went under which changed every century or so or when he got bored of it) Jared had made it a point of professional pride to always keep his word when it came to his contracted work. 

Goodman Grey’s reputation was equally spotless. So Jared knew Grey wasn’t about to launch an attack to rip out his spine, chew on his heart for the fun of it, or to devour any power he had as a scion.

But try to convince his instincts of that. 

As far as his lizard-brain was concerned, someone – a vicious skinwalker – who had nearly killed him was in the same room. Someone who had _challenged_ him to a fight was right there… just sitting there, staring at him.

And _he_ wasn’t doing anything about it.

He looked up at Grey who met his gaze unflinching. They stared at each other for a long moment. Each of them was tensed to act before they casually broke their gazes and looked at other parts of the room. They kept cycling through the same motions until the meeting broke up as Dresden’s people hurried out to get the ball rolling on their plan.

It wasn’t until all who were left behind were Grey, Karrin, Harry and him that Dresden spoke up. 

“What is going on with the two of you?” Dresden asked, looking from Grey to Jared and back again. “I’ve never seen you so on edge,” he said to Grey, baffled.

Jared didn’t smirk but he wanted to. It felt good to know he had been getting on Grey’s nerves as much as he had been jangling away at his own.

Karrin snorted. “They’re two big tom cats with a history of fighting each other being forced to share a little space, Harry. What do you think?”

“Well, they’re going to have to deal with it,” Dresden said, frowning at them. “I need you both watch my back when I go into the Accords meeting in about an hour. I can’t have you being too busy watching each other and not looking out for danger.”

“Both of us?” Grey asked.

“Justine is protected, right?”

“Yes, she’s covered.”

“Then I’m going to need you with me.”

“The two of us,” Jared stated. “That’s overkill.”

Dresden rolled his eyes. “You haven’t seen who is supposed to be there. If anything I’m still going in without enough firepower.” He gave Grey and then Jared a firm look. “Whatever is going on between you two, I don’t have time to deal with it. So it’s on you guys to kiss and make up. Go. And show up at the headquarters of the Brighter Future Society on time.”

Jared snorted derisively but then reconsidered. He arched an eyebrow at Grey. “Well, you heard the boss.”

Grey tossed Dresden a crisp, if mocking, salute before he walked out with Jared. They weren’t quite side by side as neither was willing to let the other at his exposed back but also weren’t close enough to be in grabbing range. They crossed through Karrin’s backyard, jumped over the fence and went into the empty neighboring house.

Once inside, Grey looked at Jared and said calmly, “I figure we have two choices. One: we could kill each other. Unlikely to work since we’ve been trying to kill each other on and off for decades and it hasn’t exactly taken.”

“You tried to rip my face off last time.”

A smile jackknifed open and close on Grey’s lips. “Yes.” Then those gold-flaked brown eyes narrowed. “And before that _you_ doused me with napalm.”

Jared grinned toothily. He had done that hadn’t he. He’d been on an ‘Apocalypse Now’ kick that decade. Good times.

“So option two: we fuck,” Grey added bluntly.

“The boss did say to kiss and make up,” Jared said lightly, amused. 

It was the fastest way to get over their mutual instinctive aversion. Sex and violence were easier to flip around than any other set of instincts so much so that fighting and fucking often were linked in the supernatural set. Scions like themselves were hardly immune to the blurring of those lines. Hell, even mortals could cross those wires if they weren’t careful. 

It would certainly convince his lizard-brain to reduce its murderous tendencies to a tolerable level, or at even switch tracks onto something which would let Jared do his damned job without feeling like he needed to watch Grey’s every move.

“Sounds like a plan,” Jared continued, nodding in agreement. He gestured down a hall. “There’s a bed in the master bedroom that’s big enough.” 

The entire house was dark and while his vision was super-human, he didn’t have the cat’s eye trick of seeing in near darkness, so Jared grabbed one of the electronic lanterns he’d brought into the house. He had also had a kerosene lamp but the smell of the burning fuel always made him sneeze so he’d left it in the van.

“I do have a couple of rules,” Grey said, as they entered the bedroom. He watched Jared with somber brown-bronze eyes. There was a lot less gold in them than before. His arms were relaxed at his side, but there was a tension in him which made Jared glance at him warily.

“Such as?” asked Jared, as he put his weapons by the nightstand and started stripping off his outer gear while keeping an eye on Grey. He also put a timer on his phone, not wanting to miss Dresden’s meet-up. He had a pretty good internal clock but he could lose track in the middle of sex and they needed to factor in clean up and arrival time.

“No biting.”

“Agreed,” Jared said at once, thinking of the number of supernatural beings he knew who seemed to confuse sex and lunch time. Or thought it was appropriate to follow one with the other, using the same person. That was without even taking into the account the number of beings who thought nothing about, while in the heat of the moment, biting down and _chewing_ , even if they hadn’t intended to make you dinner.

When he’d been young Jared had had to learn that one the hard way.

“Also no collecting any genetic material for later use either,” Grey added, still not moving as Jared removed the last of his clothing, leaving them on a neat pile on the model dresser. Finally Jared undid the tie from his pony tail. He ran a hand through his blond hair, letting it settle onto his shoulders before putting the tie on his wrist. He lost so many of those things he swore he spent more on hair ties than he did on knives in the space of a year.

Jared nodded. “Definitely agreeing to that. I’m adding no injuries. I heal fast but that not that fast.” He didn’t want the other man forgetting himself and clawing him up because he got enthusiastic. Not that Jared was opposed to a hard fuck but just because the skinwalker could heal in minutes didn’t mean that Jared had the same ability. He’d need at least a couple of days. 

Days he didn’t have with Dresden dragging him into the war looming over Chicago.

“Agreed,” Grey said, as he continued standing still.

Jared pulled down the duvet and top sheet, kicking them out of the way as he lounged on his back, his head propped up by the thick pillows. He stretched his spine, rolling the lingering tension out of his shoulders as he watched Grey, pondering the odd idea of a body-shy skinwalker to distract his instincts which wanted him to put all the bullets in his gun’s clip into the man’s skull until his brains leaked out.

It took another few seconds before Grey finally got moving and started slowly undoing the buttons of his shirt. 

“So,” Jared asked, as he continued watching him. “Can you do Marilyn Monroe?”

Grey’s brown eyes narrowed in the lantern’s light. He voice was hard as he said, “What you see is what you get.”

“Too bad,” Jared said amused at Grey’s irritation. He wondered how often the skinwalker had had to deal with those kinds of expectations in the past. Then he mentally shrugged, not really caring about the answer. Instead, Jared pointedly sprawled out his legs and hitched his hips in a blatant invitation. 

Grey paused and blinked slowly in surprise. He took off his shirt finally letting Jared see the definition of muscles of his chest and the sparse spread of fine dark hairs which thickened and gathered at the center of his abdomen below his belly button, leading down until the trail disappeared under his jeans. His nipples were copper-toned and encircled with little hairs which made Jared want to chase them with his tongue.

Some inner barrier, something which had been keeping Grey stiff finally gave away. Heat sparked and began blazing away in his gaze as the gold began seeping back into his eyes. Grey started stripped out of his clothes faster than before. Naked he walked forward. His legs were as well-defined as the rest of him, and his cock was nestled in dark hairs, looking about standard in size and shape.

Then he climbed onto the bed, settling between Jared’s spread legs. Grey’s hands rested lightly on Jared’s muscled upper legs, right above the knee. He was watching Jared’s reaction intently like he expected him to get violent at the touch.

The part of Jared’s mind which remained alert to analyze the dangers of any situation, pointed out the ease in which Grey could cut off his legs with a shift of his hands into those razor sharp claws he’d been toting earlier. That now Jared wouldn’t be able to move fast enough to stop him. 

The thrill of the thought sent his heart pumping and he started getting hard. He remained relaxed and smiled confidently at Grey.

The other man arched his eyebrows in a silent question, even as his hands slid under Jared’s knees and lifted them up until they were spread wide. Jared flexed his feet against the mattress and let him.

Jared’s grin didn’t falter. “Hey, with no Marilyn then you get stuck doing all the work, Grey. I’ve had a long day.”

“And I haven’t?” Grey murmured but he didn’t protest the idea. If anything Jared could tell he really liked it because he was eyeing Jared more and more like he was a feast and he’d hadn’t eaten in days. It made it really obvious that until then he had been thinking of sex between them as a chore to get out of the way. At least until Jared made it clear that he expected to be the one to get fucked.

Jared had a pretty easy policy on sex. Women for fucking and men when he wanted to get fucked. Easy. What was more difficult was finding someone who wouldn’t use it to kill him. Or who wouldn’t get attached.

Grey certainly was onboard with the idea of fucking him. Hell, he even started smelling different. Less like he was barely there and more and more like sex. Like he was getting seriously turned on. 

He actually smelled really, really good. Musky and male but also clean too with a complicated scent of spices like a unique masala chai which Jared had drank over five years ago and hadn’t been able to find since. Jared opened his mouth, letting Grey’s scent in, practically swallowing him down. He licked his lips trying to chase it with his tongue.

“How do you feel about kissing?” He focused to see Grey staring at his mouth. 

Shapeshifters were by and large damned good at sex. If if wasn’t for the fact that so many of them were untrustworthy then Jared would be having sex with them more often. He was perfectly content to let Grey run the show.

“Don’t hold back on my account,” Jared answered.

And Grey didn’t. 

He swooped in, sliding his hands up Jared’s body until he settled one on his shoulder and the other on his chin even as Grey himself pressed his mouth to Jared’s own and swept in a strong tongue like he intended to plant a conquering flag on Jared’s tonsils.

Jared instinctively fought back, wrapping a hand around the nape of Grey’s neck, giving as good as he got until his mouth was hot, wet and smeared with the taste of Grey all over his lips, teeth and tongue all the way down to the back his throat. 

The hunger Jared always felt burning away in his gut; that unquenchable craving for money, for weapons, and for more and more became distracted by the offer of sex and focused on the now. His attention was caught on the feel of Grey’s hot skin against his and the insistent way the other man was demanding reactions from him with every swipe of tongue against tongue and press of his lips against Jared’s own.

Then Grey rocked into him with his hardening cock until he was sliding right along Jared’s own hard-on and along the coarse dark blond hairs. Every moved shifted Grey upwards with every flex of his hips. Until he was leaving a slick trail of pre-cum along Jared’s groin and stomach. Until all Jared could smell in the room was Grey getting progressively more and more turned on. Jared could feel both their skins heating up, slicking with sweat, spit and the pre-cum leaking from their cocks.

Grey was spilling out a lot. More than a human would be at this point.

The bitter with spices smell made Jared’s mouth water.

Then out of fucking nowhere, Grey put a third and fourth hand on Jared’s hips and raised him up, off the bed.

Jared would swear he didn’t make a sound as he tensed but he suspected he’d let something of his surprise slip out from the amused smirk he could feel against his lips. 

“Shapeshifter,” Grey said in reminder as he pulled back from the kiss. The laughter was suppressed in his voice but it showed in the sparkle of amusement in his golden eyes as Jared glared up at him. At some point as they’d kissed, Grey’s brown eyes had turned back to gold with pupils which had lengthened into slits.

Jared’s heart skipped a beat out of an instinct sense of grave danger. 

“Fuck you, Grey,” Jared growled back, annoyed at being caught off guard and his hands itched for his Glock-19.

It hadn’t just been the feel of the extra hands which had startled him, Jared had also been taken by surprise by Grey’s casual display of strength. He had known the man was a lot stronger than his unassuming height and body-type would indicate, having fought him too often to have that particular detail escape his notice. Jared never confused the fact that he was taller and broader as him being the one with more physical power. But it was one thing to feel Grey’s strength as fleeting hits or blows which knocked Jared across a room before he got away, it was another thing altogether to feel it in the fingers and hands of something with an inescapable grip on his hips. Hands which had the strength to tear him apart, like he was made up of rice paper instead of something tougher than human, if Grey wanted.

Shit, it was actually pretty hot, even if his strong sense of self-preservation wanted Jared to kick hard (his chin twinged) and get the hell away at the same time. He ignored it. He always could when good sex was on the line.

This time Grey laughed, a low and rumbling noise as if his chest was bigger than it looked even with the extra set of arms coming out below the primary pair. “Oh, I _will._ ” 

“Hmm, not too impressed so far,” Jared said lying but making the statement a challenge. 

The grin Grey shot him was full of white teeth. He stepped it up.

The first two pair of hands hitched Jared’s legs apart just a bit further even as hands three and four tilted his hips up. Grey dipped his head, licking his way down Jared’s neck with a tongue longer and a bit rougher than a humans. He tasted the pulses of the carotid arteries in Jared's neck before reaching Jared’s chest. The wet scrape he left on his nipples made Jared jerk in Grey’s grasp. Then fingers from the extra arms lengthened, pulling apart the cheeks of Jared’s ass until he was exposed to Grey’s eyes. 

Jared’s own hard cock lightly bounced against his stomach until he got his right hand on it. He pulled back on his foreskin, exposing the wet head to the air, and slid his thumb over the leaking slit, and then the his first and second finger before sliding down until he was at his balls, drifting past until he was his ass, pressing his fingers in. 

Grey froze for a moment, staring with such an intense hunger that the feel of it practically crackled in the air.

It wasn’t hard to picture what Grey had to be seeing: Jared’s two fingers buried to the knuckles in a ring of pink which widened and swallowed the intrusion. 

Easy to replace those fingers with his own hard cock.

Grey seemed to agree because he growled, low and bone-rattling before his right primary hand pulled Jared’s fingers away, and pressed Jared’s wrist over his head and firmly onto the headboard, holding it there. Only then did Grey replace the fingers with his own. 

“Fuck,” Jared gasped, arching in surprise because Grey had made his fingers bigger so that even only three of them sinking into his ass were more than Jared had expected. They were also slippery with something, something warm and oily that didn’t smell like lube. Actually, from what Jared could sniff out it even smelled more strongly of Grey’s scent. Something he was producing himself then. 

The oil slipped down from Grey’s fingers, staining the sheet below them and spreading the scent even further throughout the room. Jared wanted to bring Grey’s fingers up to his mouth to taste it directly on his tongue to find out if it would be as good as it smelled.

He got Grey’s mouth instead, which was a pretty damned good second option.

Then Grey shifted, pulling him forward even as his oiled fingers slipped away. Then still keeping Jared’s ass spread, he pushed his cock into him. Slowly. Letting Jared feel everything inch of him as he sank in.

Jared gasped, feeling the slide.

Grey only stopped when his balls came to rest against Jared’s ass. He barely gave Jared a second, before he was shifting his hips back, pulling out nearly all the way out only stopping to let the crown of his cock stretch Jared again before diving back in. This time he shifted his angle and he found Jared’s prostrate like he was laser-guided. 

Pleasure lit Jared up, like it was lightening singing up and down his spine. He arched his back a bit more, shifting his hips to meet Grey’s pace.

Every time Grey’s moved out and back in, Jared panted hard, his breaths forced out his lungs every time Grey sank in deep. 

Although, _fuck_ , Jared’s own cock was being ignored and he wouldn’t stand for it. Jared reached down his free hand but before he could wrap his fingers around himself, Grey’s left primary hand caught his wrist, bring his arm back up with the other by the headboard until both his wrists were caught in the grip of Grey’s primary right hand and locked in place.

Jared narrowed his eyes. “Hey,” he protested, his tone a warning. 

Grey’s hips didn’t stop moving, he smirked down at Jared. “I’m – I’m doing all the work.” Grey breathed out hard, “Remember?”

Then his now free left hand wrapped firmly around Jared’s cock. For a second, he could feel fingers, the bite of trimmed nails right on his shaft, making him swear, before Grey’s hand went boneless, slick and undulating. What felt like a smooth tongue was wrapped around his hard-on.

“Hell,” Jared groaned, all complaints slipping away. Involuntarily, he closed his eyes until he forced them open again a moment later.

“Still – still – not blown away,” Jared gasped. 

Grey’s golden eyes narrowed. His hips drew back until his entire cock slipped out then when he snapped back into Jared with more force, he felt _bigger_. Again, out and in… feeling bigger _again._

Jared’s eyes widened as he realized what Grey was doing. “Oh. Fuck,” he whimpered, thoroughly startled.

Shit. No other shapeshifter had been able to do _that_ in the middle of sex before. That kind of fine control when in the middle of an activity that was all about losing control… fucking hell, he hadn’t thought it was possible. Jared wondered absently, if this the difference between a run-of-the-mill shapeshifter and a skinwalker?

He goddamned whimpered again as Grey pistoned out of his ass and slammed back in, even fucking bigger, longer, wider. He felt like Grey’s cock was reaching up to Jared’s throat.

Grey’s smile grew increasingly smug with the tempo of sounds of wet skin slapping on skin, with every moan being wrung out of Jared’s throat on every impossible stretching thrust, with every bit of increasing girth he made Jared take.

Jared had the wild, desperate thought that he wouldn’t be able to endure much more. When the feeling of being stretched, of the pleasure getting mixed with a spark of bright silver pain tripped Jared over the edge.

His balls went tight and he came, yelling, bowing his back but barely able to move from the remorseless hold Grey had on him. Pleasure crashed into him like a train. The shock of the hit making his eyes roll back. For a long breathless moment he stayed in that space as his balls emptied themselves before he shivered hard and went utterly limp. 

Grey’s slick hold on Jared’s cock loosened and the wet gush of his own warm semen sliding down his softening shaft, balls and onto his pubic hair made Jared tremble with minor aftershocks.

He barely got a second’s reprieve before Grey began moving again. 

Jared lost count of how many time Grey thrust into him with the huge cock before he came. Four, five, or ten. He was just trying to keep from losing his damned mind. Grey stiffed and orgasmed with another bone-rattling growl. The flooded heat Jared could feel inside him wrung another spurt of come out his own cock.

...fucking hell.

Grey released him slowly, reluctantly, like he was considering just keeping him in place and getting more out of Jared than what they had negotiated. 

Jared was almost tempted to let him. 

Grey pulled out, his cock was followed with a gush of semen and oil Jared could feel slicking down his thighs. 

Then Jared got a glimpse of the new size of Grey’s cock. Well over two and half inches in width and practically a foot in length. A monster cock for a fellow monster.

Fucking bastard. 

Fuck. That cock had felt so damned good Jared wasn’t even a little mad over how sore he was going to be for the upcoming hours.

“You’re a damned bastard,” Jared slurred out, a faint grump in his voice although he felt too good to work up any real annoyance. 

Grey chuckled at him, stretching out his entire body and the extra set of arms sank away back into his torso.

“You’re lucky you’re a great fuck, Grey, or I’d really have to kill you for that,” Jared muttered, after a couple of minutes of letting his brain reboot. Although even if he wanted to he didn’t have the motivation right now, feeling too drunk on the afterglow of his fading orgasm. At least until the timer on his phone started beeping at him. He swore and swung an uncoordinated hand for his phone, shutting it off after the third attempt to grab it.

Damn it, he didn’t think he could even move right now. 

But the job… Jared groaned and forced himself to shake off the afterglow.

Next to him on the bed, Grey was watching him with eyes which shone an even brighter yellow gold than before. He didn’t look near half as wrecked as Jared felt, and no doubt, looked. 

“You should call me Goodman.”

“Not on your life,” Jared said, at once. This wasn’t anything more than trying to make the job easier. Sure, pleasurable as hell but nothing close to personal.

“Want to bet?” Grey asked slyly.

Jared didn’t bother responding to that as he slowly slid off the bed, stretching out his muscles. He ignored the twinge of lingering pain-pleasure at having been so stretched out, of having tested his limits. Instead he reached for his clothes, trying to hide the wobble in his knees although he suspected he’d failed miserably at it.

 _Damn,_ Grey was easily one of the best fucks Jared had had in a while.

He pulled out a small packet of anti-bacterial wipes from his jacket pocket, regretting not having brought a towel with him. But there was still no running water in Chicago yet. Jared used the wipes to clean off his body the sopping mess of cum, the oil which Grey had produced as lube, saliva and sweat. He would still smell of sex to anyone with a working nose but at least _he_ would be comfortable.

Grey followed his every motion with golden eyes, a satisfied expression, and an air of smugness. Jared let him have his moment. He actually earned it. Jared was just pleased to no longer have his own instincts raging at full strength for him to attack the other scion for daring even to glance at his direction.

It worked. His lizard-brain had finally shut up about attacking Grey. Of course, now it was practically purring and wanting to plan out another fuck. Now, if possible.

“Tick-tock,” Jared reminded Grey before pointedly ignoring him as he dressed and added all the weapons to the right locations. 

Time to get to work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *plants the Goodman Grey/Jared Kincaid ship flag firmly in the ground*


	2. Epilogue

Their entire change in attitude to each other must have been pretty obvious because when Harry Dresden rolled up in a dark blue Cadillac with purple flames on the hood and front fenders he commented on it. He barely waited until he got out of the driver’s door while Karrin Murphy got out of the passenger side.

Huh, not the kind of car Jared would have ever pegged as being the wizard’s style. Too classy for one.

Jared and Grey had been inside the van and had only stepped out onto the sidewalk when they had seen the eye-catching car coming down the road. 

“Hey you guys fixed it,” Dresden said, as he looked at Grey and then at Jared with a pleased expression. Then a clearly worried thought struck him as his brown eyes widened. “You guys didn’t kill anyone, did you?”

“You told us to kiss and make up, not take someone out,” Grey reminded him mildly. 

“And we did, no killing anyone involved,” Jared added. “You want the titillating details, it’s going to cost you.”

Dresden was still frowning while next to him Karrin shot Jared a knowing smirk. He winked at her. 

“Unless you want first hand experience, of course,” Jared added. “You’re invited too, Karrin.”

Realization dawned on Dresden’s face but disappointingly he didn’t have any more of a reaction than pinked cheeks. 

Dresden turned to Karrin and demanded, “Is there some sort of invisible sign above our heads saying: Couple: looking for a third for a threesome, currently taking applications?”

“Someone else has already tried to hit you two up?” Jared asked, not too surprised as they made an eye-catching pair. “Let me guess, the Baron made an offer.”

Now he got the reaction he had been looking for from Dresden. For the wizard’s head jerked up as he sputtered while his cheeks turned a deep apple red.

“What? _Marcone?!_ No! What the hell – what makes you think Marcone would – he’d _never!_ He hasn’t! No!” Dresden practically flailed his arms in the air, turning rather dangerous with the staff he was holding. “No way! Not gonna happen! Uh-uh! Nope!”

Karrin took a prudent step away.

Grey shot Jared an amused look. “Someone is protesting way too much.”

“Tell me about it,” agreed Jared.

Karrin snickered. 

Dresden stopped his ridiculous floundering and buried his face in his free hand. “Oh, stars, you’re never going to let me forget this are you?” he asked mournfully.

“Are you kidding me? After how you’ve been making fun of me about the Valkyrie? I’m never letting it go, Harry,” grinned Karrin.

“Grey, _kill_ Kincaid for me,” Harry ordered. 

“I would but I like him too much right now,” Grey said easily. “Ask me later.”

“I did not need to have _that_ on my mind when I’m about to talk with Marcone,” Harry groused. Then he straightened his back, dropping his large hand from his face. He shot Jared an aggravated look. 

Jared smirked. 

“Let’s just hope he hasn’t developed telepathy or hired someone with it in the last two years.” Then Dresden strode confidently into a tower house, an actual castle from the 15th century which had been dropped incongruously onto an American city, as if he owned it. 

Karrin’s limp made her trail only a little behind him as she matched his stride while Grey and Jared flanked their sides, keeping eyes open for danger.

*-*-*-*

The meeting wasn’t quite ready to start. Dresden dropped Grey and Karrin off on seats which put them smack in the middle between the Winter Court and the White Council before he dragged Jared off with him to another part of the castle.

“Look, I’m just trying to fix what I broke,” Dresden said mysteriously, as he waved Jared into another room away from the conference area. 

Jared eyed him with narrow-eyed suspicion but before he could question the wizard the man shoved him hard with a magical force, making him stumble into the room before closing the door behind him. 

Instantly, Jared pulled out his Glock, only to freeze at the sight of the Archive, looking back at him with straight posture and a cool, distant expression.

Oh, she had _grown._

Which was a stupid thing to think, of course she’d grown. She hadn’t stopped growing from the moment Jared started taking care of her. 

He just hadn’t expected the changes time had wrought to be so extreme compared to the last time he’d seen her.

Jared had never been away from her for so long before. The previous changes had always seemed gradual. Or instant, as if he had only to blink for her to gain an inch in height. 

But this was more than that. 

The Archive was looking more and more like the women who’d come before her. It was in her face, in her frame, in the way she stood, in the dress she wore and in the minimal make-up on her face. The woman she would finish growing into was there in the highlights of her.

Then the Archive blinked and tears flooded her blue eyes. They stripped the years away, dropping her back into the little girl would cry after nightmares, who’d get helpless with frustration over her inability to keep her stockings straight, and who would get excited over a cat or a dog because she thought they were adorable.

Her lipsticked lower lip trembled dangerously. She took a stumbling step forward but then abruptly stopped.

It was too much. That small, hurting corner of himself which Jared had been ignoring and denying existed for the last two years, grew and overwhelmed him. 

“Midget,” Jared said softly. He couldn’t help it. He spread his arms. 

Ivy ran to him and he wrapped his arms around her. 

Even as he held on tight as the girl left tears on his combat vest part of Jared’s mind swore at Dresden. Because, dammit, now he owed the blasted wizard _another_ favor. 

End

**Author's Note:**

> Brain: Drops a stack of new Grey/Kincaid ideas next to the teetering stack of Marcone/Dresden. 
> 
> Me: You said I only had to write one! One!
> 
> Brain: I lied. *smug*
> 
> Someone else write Goodman Grey/Jared Kincaid, please, so I'm not the only one swept away by the madness of a new ship. For crying out loud, they haven't even met canonically yet! And yet... *wants it*
> 
> Also I could not resist Ivy. Or the Marcone mentions. =D


End file.
